Talking About Cool[ing] It

Bjorn Lomborg, "Smart Solutions to Climate Change."

Bjorn Lomborg and Ondi Timoner's approach to the Macro Theme of Global Climate Change is simple:  Dollars & Cents

"I support the carbon tax," said filmmaker Ondi Timoner in a recent interview with Greening Hollywood. "It's only 6 cents at the gas pump and it would raise $270 Billion." Money, she says, that could be used to fund R&D of new clean energy sources and also green jobs.

The best way to silence someone is to destroy their reputation," said Timoner.

Cool It! the documentary about Global Climate Change that opens in major U.S. markets today, follows scientist and professor Bjorn Lomborg as he discusses the issues of global climate change with experts around the world.  This Dane is the editor of the book  Smart Solutions to Climate Change, and the author of The Skeptical Environmentalist, which The Guardian U.K. says are two very different outlooks on the same issue by the same person.

In his new book, Lomborg concludes, "Investing $100bn annually would mean that we could essentially resolve the climate change problem by the end of this century."

In his own defense, Lomborg explained to Greening Hollywood in a telephone interview that, "My fundamental point is not that we shouldn't worry [about climate change]. It's that we need to be led by good information, good judgment. We have to keep asking How big is the problem? And not focusing only on people who shout the loudest or have the cutest animal. We have to worry about [climate change] in the smartest possible way so that we end up doing a lot of good. Not just feeling good."

Ondi Timoner, a Sundance Kid, whose previous documentaries "We Live In Public," and "Dig!" very candidly admitted that she knew very little about the issue of climate change when she first met with Lomborg to discuss the for-hire film project.

About that first creative meeting, Timoner recalled, "I didn't know if Bjorn was legitimate or not but I grilled him for five hours. He expressed his ideas in such interesting ways that when I left that meeting I was convinced that he was worth hearing; he was worth knowing about.  The best way to silence someone is to destroy their reputation," said Timoner.

"I was also overwhelmed by the subject matter. I felt challenged to make climate change an entertaining subject matter, not so dry.  I saw that after 18 years of climate change conferences there was no forward motion. I wanted to make a movie where I could engage the audience so they feel empowered to do something."

One point that Timoner and Lomborg agree on is that there's a need for solutions when it comes to the Climate Change debate.  They both recognize that there's a polarization between the left and the right and their approaches to Climate Change.  Lomborg, a scientist who has become comfortable with and around cameras in recent years, has a good response that just might cut to the quick of that polarization:

"Think forward to our kids and grandkids...It doesn't matter if we've spoken beautifully about climate change. It matters if we have done something about it." - Bjorn Lomborg

Cool It! Trailer HERE.  In U.S. Theaters starting today.

Greening Beauty

 

Facebook/GreenBlogNetwork

Posted via email from The Green Blog Network


Share/Bookmark

World Energy Outlook 2010


The 2010 edition of the World Energy Outlook (WEO) was released on 9 November and it provides updated projections of energy demand, production, trade and investment, fuel by fuel and region by region to 2035. It includes, for the first time, a new scenario that anticipates future actions by governments to meet the commitments they have made to tackle climate change and growing energy insecurity. 
WEO-2010 also puts the spotlight on several topical issues, including what more must be done and spent post-Copenhagen to limit the global temperature increase to 2°C and how these actions would impact oil markets; how emerging economies – led by China and India – will increasingly shape the global energy landscape; the costs and benefits of increasing renewable energy, the outlook for Caspian energy markets and their implications for global energy supply, the future role for unconventional oil and the crucial importance of energy in achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals.  Read More....

Greening Beauty

 

Facebook/GreenBlogNetwork


Share/Bookmark

Green Is Good - Radio Interview

wens Corning’s Joe Arrigo and

Eco Consulting * Eco Media's Paige Donner -

October 29, 2010  Green IS Good Radio Program

HostO
Joe Arrigo Owens Corning Owens Cornings Joe Arrigo and Paige Donner


Green Is Good Radio Program: Hosted by John Shegerian and Mike Brady on Clear Channel
Joe Arrigo, the Building Science Leader for Owens Corning, visits “Green is Good” to discuss the iconic building materials company’s new eco-projects.
Owens Corning is the original manufacturer of Fiberglas, the insulation material used in millions of homes worldwide. Arrigo points out that Fiberglas pays for itself 12 times over in the first year following installation. Now the company’s Energy Complete system, launched in 2009, is leading the energy-efficiency and insulation industries.
“On average, [Owens Corning] saves the homeowner 30% [on energy costs],” Arrigo reveals. “Domestically, energy costs are probably going to significantly go up in the near future, and we want to make sure that we’re making buildings more efficient.”
Paige Donner Owens Cornings Joe Arrigo and Paige DonnerPaige Donner wears many eco-hats: humanitarian, filmmaker, journalist, founder of the Green Blog Network and more. While Donner is based in Los Angeles, she travels all over the globe, investigating how the media conveys eco-news and awareness.

“We’re all together on this planet,” Donner says. “[We share] more similarities than differences. It’s not that you have to be perfectly green — none of us are going to be perfect. I think a lot of people think ‘green’ and become self-critical instead of self-praising.”
In particular, Donner is interested in the greening process in Hollywood — both on the production and awareness side. She says that more Hollywood stars are going green without being pigeonholed for it — a sign that the eco-movement is finally being embraced as a culturally accepted norm.
John Shegerian & Mike Brady
John Shegerian and his Electronic Recycling Co. was featured recently in Fortune Magazine
“Green is Good,” hosted by Electronic Recyclers International’s John Shegerian and Mike Brady, is America’s No. 1 green radio show that features people and organizations that are making a green difference. Join John and Mike as they discuss go-green initiatives, green-collar jobs, sustainability practices, environmental issues, recycling, reuse and more with some of the green world’s most influential people.
Broadcast weekly on Clear Channel Radio Network, “Green is Good” highlights hot topics in the green world, and offers advice, suggestions, information and solutions from green experts. Join the go-green movement today.
Innovative, practical and entertaining… I love what’s been created with our “Green is Good” show… We are fortunate enough to have one of the most knowledgeable and dynamic entrepreneurs in the country in John Shegerian, to deliver this most important message on our Clear Channel stations and world wide web sites. This show delivers the country’s most knowledgeable and cutting edge environmental savvy business owners and professionals that can be heard anywhere… green is good, is great, I’m proud of it.
Jeff Negrete
Clear Channel
Market Manager

Greening Beauty



Share/Bookmark

COOL IT opens LA on 11/12/10

 

Cool It blasts through the polarizing logjam of the climate change debate to bring a solid plan for solutions” – director Ondi Timoner

 

Roadside Attractions presents

“COOL IT”

In theaters nationwide on Nov. 12, 2010

 

Feature documentary plays in Los Angeles

at the Laemmle Monica 4-Plex & in Orange County

*additional theaters TBA

 

Climate catastrophe? The end of civilization as we know it?   COOL IT is based upon the book of the same name and lectures by Bjorn Lomborg, the controversial author of The Skeptical Environmentalist.  Award-winning filmmaker Ondi Timoner travels the world with Lomborg exploring the real facts and true science of global warming and its impact.  Lomborg is the founder and director of the Copenhagen Consensus Center, a globally respected think tank that brings together the world’s leading economists to prioritize major global problems -- among them malaria, the lack of potable water and HIV/AIDS -- based upon a cost/benefit analysis of available solutions. Amidst the strong and polarized opinions within the global warming debate, COOL IT follows Lomborg on his mission to bring the smartest solutions to climate change, environmental pollution, and other major problems in the world.

 

Roadside Attractions will release COOL IT nationwide on November 12, 2010. The feature documentary will play in Los Angeles at the Laemmle Monica 4-Plex and in Orange County. Additional theaters TBA.  COOL IT is a 1019 Entertainment Production in association with Interloper Films. An Ondi Timoner Film.

 

Rating: PG for thematic elements. Running Time: 87 minutes


Greening Beauty

Facebook/GreenBlogNetwork

Posted via email from The Green Blog Network


Share/Bookmark

First-of-Its-Kind Renewable Energy Facility, Ivanpah, California

In California in the past few months, 3,500 megawatts of solar have been approved. This is revolutionary. Current total energy usage is approximately 26,000 to 32,000 megawatts of energy. Approved solar plants are now 10 percent of what is used in energy. This makes California the leader in the world.

The following comments are from John Woolard of Brightsource speaking at October 27th Press Conference, Ivanpah, California:

 

A few facts about Ivanpah, just to put it in perspective: Ivanpah is now the world's largest solar plant under construction. And it takes a lot to get a solar plant under construction. You've got to have transmission, you've got to have permits, you've got to have investors, you've got to have an EPC contractor -- we're honored to have Bechtel here as our EPC contractor.  

 

When it's completed, Ivanpah will double the amount of solar thermal produced in the U.S.

 

There's a lot of talk about the U.S. and competiveness and China. And Ivanpah alone, one plant, one facility, is two times larger than all of the solar that came in from China that was installed last year -- so one plant, one facility, bigger than all of the solar that came in from China last year.

 

This project, Ivanpah, will have a dramatic effect on helping us meet our state's clean energy and our climate change goals and in less than two years we'll be producing some of the most reliable and the lowest carbon-content power anywhere in the country. -  Mr. John Woolard, CEO, Brightsource (speaking at Press Conference in Ivanpah, California October 27th, 2010)

Water Saving Environmental Design: Dry Cooling

 

Ivanpah uses dry-cooling as opposed to wet cooling. Dry cooling uses 3 to 4 percent of the water that wet-cool designs use. In the desert, and in many U.S. states, water is an ever more precious commodity. Dry cooling used in the Ivanpah design, then, is an environmentally responsible design.

 

A Healthy Environment, A Healthy Economy

 

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was on hand to make a few comments:

 

When I ran for governor in 2003 I made it very clear that, you know, we should stop the fight over should we protect the environment or should we protect the economy. I always said that we can do both. And I think that we have proven that over the last few years since I have come into office, that you can put both of those together.

 

And this is why we went, when I came into office, we immediately, aggressively started building the Hydrogen Highway and we started to pass laws -- the Low-Carbon Fuel Standard, the Million Solar Roof Initiative to build solar roofs all over the state of California and also to pass AB 32 and to make a commitment, like some other countries have done all around the world, to reduce our greenhouse gases by 25 percent and to bring it back to the 1990 level. So that was our goal and, after 2020, to reduce it an additional 85 percent.


From Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar

 

Ivanpah is truly a revolutionary project. It is a pioneering project, as was stated earlier. So I was thinking about it today -- and people were referencing a moon shot here in California with Ivanpah -- I was thinking back to what John Kennedy said back at the beginning of his administration, where he said that we would, in the United States, have the ability, if we only had the courage, to be able to get a man to the moon and we would be able to do that within 10 years. When he made that statement he had the vision of looking way ahead, because none of the facilities had been built, the engineering had not been put together. And so it was a dream and a vision that he had and yet, because of American ingenuity, because of the great people we had involved in those projects, we were able to get a man to the moon within nine years....

 

But it's also about our reliance on foreign oil. From the days of Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter in the '70s and coining the term "energy independence," the failed policies on energy of the United States have taken us in the opposite direction. We're now turning the clock back and we're moving forward in a new direction with respect to that energy future that's all important for our national security.

 

And finally, with respect to clean air -- we will be able to power the economy of our world through clean energy sources and that's part of what we're doing here with capturing the power of the sun.

Greening Beauty

Facebook/GreenBlogNetwork

Posted via email from The Green Blog Network


Share/Bookmark